«Warszawa» documents a short set (only 33 minutes long) of American experimental guitarist Bill Orcutt during the Avant Art Festival, at the Spatif club in Warsaw in October 2019. Orcutt is known for work with the hardcore-punk-noise-free jazz group Harry Pussy and his duo with drummer Chris Corsano, as well as his collaborations with cellist Okkyung Lee and drummer Jacob Felix Heule.
«Warszawa» offers two untitled, extended improvisations. On the first piece, Orcutt weaves patiently and organically his very personal reconstructions of electric blues threads with more abstract, but still lyrical, noisy musings, letting these parallel veins echo until reaching a point of multiple reorientations. This kind of free-associative, raw and naked and even primitive guitar improvisation, rooted loosely in the blues legacy, brings to mind the work of another American guitar icon, John Fahey, and not surprisingly, Orcutt paid homage to Fahey in «John Fahey Commemorative Beer Can» (from «International Anthems, Vol. 5», Tompkins Square, 2012). The second alternates between gentle, melodic themes, and aggressive and dirtier than the first one, and Orcutt sible-note, rhythmic attacks that come close to the sonic universe of guitarist-songwriter Arto Lindsay. It ends in an intense, cacophonic noise.
Orcutt is a rare kind of an original musician and improviser, who refuses to settle or surrender to any genre or convention, and is determined ro define his own, inclusive musical territory.
Eyal Hareuveni
Bill Orcutt (el.g)